‘The longest and most expensive case brought in the history of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has ended with high-profile claimant lawyer Martyn Day, two of his colleagues and his firm Leigh Day fully exonerated.’

‘Soldiers will be “shut out of justice” and military equipment failures will be covered up under plans to extend combat immunity and prevent military claims going to court, ministers have been warned.’

‘The claimant lender, C, sought possession of residential property owned jointly by D1 and his partner D2 (the property) pursuant to a purported legal charge entered into by both the D1 and D2 (the charge). The charge secured D1’s liability to C arising under a guarantee whereby D1 had guaranteed the indebtedness of his company, “Ascot” to C.’

‘There is a striking difference between CPR part 16.4, which deals with the Particulars of Claim and 16.5, which deals with the defence. Whereas there is a clear instruction that the Particulars of Claim has to include only a concise statement of the facts on which the Claimant replies, there is no corresponding provision so far as the Defence is concerned.’

‘The High Court has ruled that in a case against the state which did not directly affect the liberty of the subject, there was no irreducible minimum of disclosure of the state’s case which the court would require. The consequences of such disclosure for national security prevailed.’

‘State prosecutors were yesterday accused of “abject failure” to ensure two defence companies answer allegations of marketing torture equipment at the world’s largest arms fair in London after a private case against the firms collapsed.’

‘It is easy to forget or overlook the fact that the Criminal Procedure & Investigations Act 1996 applies equally to confiscation proceedings as it does to the substantive criminal proceedings that have resulted in the defendant being convicted in the first place (something that prosecutors do themselves on a regular basis and only appreciate its significance when the contents of their own website are brought to their attention, see “Chapter 21: Disclosure of Unused Material Created in the Course of Financial Investigations”).’

‘Tony Nicklinson lost his legal battle in 2012 for a judicial ruling that, were his wife to administer life-ending drugs to him at his express request, she would not be liable to prosecution for murder.’

“A complex fraud trial is threatened with collapse because barristers are refusing to take on defence work due to government cuts in legal aid. The case, involving eight defendants accused of what is known as a land bank fraud, is the first criminal proceeding affected by concerted action by advocates declining to accept work for significantly lower fees.”

“Defendants being charged with a number of terrorism-related offences – First defendant’s trial counsel’s conduct at trial being criticised by judge and prosecution counsel on numerous occasions during trial.”

“In his final court of appeal judgment as lord chief justice, Lord Judge has attacked the conduct of a defence advocate who likened the judge in a terrorist trial to a dishonest seller of worthless goods.”

“Where a defendant raised the defence of using reasonable force in the prevention of crime, under section 3(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1967, it would be necessary for the jury to focus first on what the defendant honestly believed were the facts before using their conclusions as to that belief to go on to decide whether the defendant had reasonable grounds for suspecting an offence was being committed and whether the force he used to prevent that crime had been reasonable.”

“Residents of a tower block near the Olympic Park will learn on Tuesday whether they have the right to challenge an unprecedented decision by the army to deploy high velocity missiles in a residential area.”